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Putin told Moon that the North Korean problem should be solved diplomatically, according to Seoul’s presidential office.

Moon, a liberal who took office in May, had initially showed a preference for a diplomatic approach on North Korea, but his government has since taken a harder stance as the North continued its torrid pace in weapons tests. In an interview with the Russian news agency TASS on Tuesday, Moon said he believes now is not the time for talks and that it is important for the international community to strengthen pressure against North Korea.

Meanwhile, the US has asked the UN Security Council to freeze the assets of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un and slap an oil embargo on the country in response to Pyongyang’s sixth and most powerful nuclear test.

A US-drafted resolution circulated on Wednesday also called for banning textile exports and ending payments made to North Korean labourers sent abroad, further depriving the Asian country of revenue to pursue its military programmes.

The draft text comes two days after Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, called for the “strongest possible measures” to be imposed on North Korea.

Haley said on Monday that the US was seeking a vote on the new sanctions on September 11. However, Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia has said this might be “a little premature.”

The proposed resolution takes aim directly at the leadership in Pyongyang with a freeze on Kim’s assets, as well as those of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea and the government of North Korea.

Kim would be added to a UN sanctions blacklist that would subject him to a global travel ban, along with four other senior North Korean officials, according to the draft.

It was not immediately clear if the draft resolution had the support of North Korean ally China.

Rosiland Jordan, reporting from the UN headquarters in New York, said the draft, which has “raised eyebrows”, was likely to meet resistance from China and Russia. — Al Jazeera